How can your performance measurement become easier, more ... · •This exercise is a diagnostic review of your performance measurement process. •It will help you talk about how

PuMP® Diagnostic

Discussion

How can your performance measurement

become easier, more meaningful and more

likely to improve organisational performance?

Introduction

• This exercise is a diagnostic review of your performance measurement

process.

• It will help you talk about how your performance measurement process

currently works, relative to how it could or should work.

• You will assess where your performance measurement process needs

improving, and explore how PuMP® can help you do that improving.– PuMP® is a framework for designing and improving and implementing performance measurement processes,

developed by Stacey Barr in the mid 1990s and used with hundreds of organisations ever since. You’ll be

exploring the key techniques in the PuMP® framework as you work through this diagnostic discussion.

• Allow about 30 to 60 minutes for the discussion.– Many people are surprised at the candidness and insight that this discussion brings out!

• At the end: decide what your first next step will be. – Don’t waste the opportunity to make a real difference, not only to your performance measurement process, but

through it, by measuring and improving what matters most.

14 July, 2010 2© Stacey Barr

Instructions

• You’ll move through 5 steps of the diagnosis– How measurable is your strategy?

– How meaningful are your performance measures?

– How well implemented are your performance measures?

– How useful and usable are your performance dashboards/reports?

– How well do your performance measures improve performance?

• At each step you will:– Discuss the meaning of each of the diagnostic criteria and examples of how it is in your

organisation.

– Rate your organisation for each of the diagnostic criteria, on the scales provided.

– Take your average rating.

– Choose the action at the bottom that is dependent on your average rating.

14 July, 2010 © Stacey Barr 3

Diagnostic 1:How measurable is your strategy?

We don’t have a strategy at all. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 We have a documented strategy that

includes goals or objectives in support of

our vision/direction.

Our strategy uses weasel words like

efficient, effective, reliable, quality,

enhanced, sustainable, etc...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Our strategy is very clearly articulated in

words that have no ambiguity and everyone

shares the same understanding of.

Our goals or objectives are statements

about the actions or projects or initiatives

we want to take.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Our goals or objectives are statements

about the impact or difference or result we

want to create or achieve.

Each part of the organisation develops its

own goals or objectives independently and

with no attempt to align.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Our strategy is linked and cascaded from

the corporate level to operational team

level and all understand their contribution.

We have dozens of goals and objectives

because a lot matters.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 We have ruthlessly prioritised our goals or

objectives to less than a dozen or so.


Improve your business planning

process before proceeding

further with performance

measures.

Go to Diagnostic 2 –

your strategy is

measurable!

Go to PuMP® Blueprint

Key Step 1 for a tool to

make your strategy

more measurable.

PuMP® Blueprint Key Step 1:

Make your strategy measurable

• PuMP® Results Mapping

technique will help you:– remove the weasel-words

– tease out measurable results

– link and cascade strategy throughout the

organisation

• How it works:– better quality dialogue about what the strategy

really means

– easier for staff at all levels to understand

strategy and their contribution

– stronger focus on what really is worth

measuring – at all levels in the organisation

– easier to go to the next step of selecting great

measures


Go to Diagnostic 2

Diagnostic 2:How meaningful are your measures?

Very few, or none, of our measures are

clearly linked to our goals and objectives.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Every measure is clearly linked to a goal or

objective that it provides meaningful

evidence of.

We have too many measures or not

enough measures.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Every important performance aspect of our

strategy or business operations is

measured with the bare minimum number

of measures.

We use milestones or actions as measures

e.g. “Implement CRM by June 2011” or

“Improve customer complaints process”

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Every measure is objective evidence that

regularly gauges the degree to which a

performance result is occurring over time.

A lot of our measures are simply a few

words like “Staff Survey” or “Productivity” or

“Sustainability Index”, with no clear

description of exactly what the measure is.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Every measure has a clear and unique

name accompanied by a description about

exactly what is being measured e.g. Overall

Customer Satisfaction = average customer

satisfaction rating on scale of 1 to 10 for

our overall service delivery

People don’t feel engaged or don’t buy in to

performance measures and avoid spending

any time on measurement at all.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Everyone values measures as useful

feedback to help them do their jobs better

and contribute to the organisation’s vision.



you have the measures

you need!



design meaningful,

aligned measures.


Design meaningful performance measures

• PuMP® Measure Design

technique will help you:– quickly consider a range of potential measures

for your goals or objectives (or results, from your

Results Map)

– select the most powerful measures by balancing

their relevance and ease of measuring

• How it works:– selects measures that are few and focused

– selects measures that align incredibly well to

goals and objectives

– tests the strength of current measures and any

other potential measures

– builds a very strong sense of ownership for

measures and results


Go to Diagnostic 3

Diagnostic 3:How well are your performance measures implemented?

None or very few of our measures have the

data available that they need, or to the

level of integrity needed.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Every measure has the data available that

it needs, to the level of integrity needed.

Most measures are annual or quarterly. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Every measure’s frequency is deliberately

chosen to provide the best time series

analysis for quickly identifying signals.

There is no guarantee that measures are

measuring what they should – there is

duplication, different versions of the truth,

incorrect calculations and analysis used.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Every measure’s calculation formula is

clearly detailed and consistently applied –

there is one version of the truth for each

measure (no duplication or ambiguity).

There is little to no ownership of

performance measures – no-one knows

who is responsible for monitoring which

measures.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Every measure has an owner, and every

measure owner feels a strong sense of

buy-in to their measures (they use the

measures and value them).

Most measures are reported without clear

intention and without clearly defined

responses to take to their signals.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Every measure’s purpose is clear and its

owner knows the appropriate responses to

take depending on the measure’s signal.

Measures pop up like mushrooms and we

have no idea how many we have.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Every measure is documented in a

corporate measure definition dictionary.



your measures are

ready for reporting!



streamline the

implementation of your

measures.


Define and implement performance measures

• PuMP® Measure Definition

technique will help you:– detail the calculation, owner, frequency and data

sources and more to ensure each measure

comes to life as intended

– keep one version of the truth about how

measures should be reported

– easily sort, categorise, find and review

measures over time (as the suite evolves)

• How it works:– gives measure owners a logical and thorough

template to define exactly how each measure

should be implemented

– keeps all measures in a single repository to

make management, updating, searching, adding

and decommissioning of measures easier and

faster


Go to Diagnostic 4

Diagnostic 4:How useful and usable are your performance reports?

Performance reports are ad hoc or non

existent. There is no standard performance

reporting process we follow.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Each performance report or dashboard is

designed for a specific audience, tailored to

the measures and results they own and

produced regularly and routinely.

We use pie charts, stacked bar charts,

default dashboard tools like dials or gauges

– whatever is the default or looks good.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Most measures (and when it makes sense)

are graphed to show historic time series to

highlight important signals about changes

in performance over time.

Performance reports are hard to navigate

and hard to find the information of most

use.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Each performance report or dashboard is

consistently structured around the goals or

objectives measured in the report.

It’s not clear from performance reports what

needs to be actioned and what doesn’t. It

takes time to work out exactly how

performance is tracking.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Each performance report or dashboard

highlights where performance is tracking

well, and where it isn’t, so it’s easy to

prioritise where to focus.

Performance reports are bulky with

updates on project progress and

operational minutia and users don’t have

time to read them all.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Each performance report or dashboard

contains the essential information to

answer what is happening, why and what

should be or is being done.



your measures are

ready to improve

performance!



design useful and

usable performance

reports.

PuMP® Blueprint Key Step 4:Report performance measures usefully and useably

• PuMP® Report Design

technique will help you:– design dashboards and scorecards so the real

signals in measures are highlighted (not using

silly and ineffective default dashboard gauges

and dials that entertain but fail to inform)

– more easily monitor progress in performance

improvement as well as the results

• How it works:– provides a template for the structure, content,

layout and design of useful and usable graphs

and dashboards (and other performance

reports)

– structures dashboards/scorecards to answer the

key decision-making questions: What’s

happening? Why is it happening? What is the

best thing to do?

– makes it easier to see true performance signals,

based on valid statistical trends and not “current

month to target” comparisons (which are too

volatile and reactive)


Go to Diagnostic 5

Diagnostic 5:How well are performance measures improving performance?

We assess performance by comparing this

month to last month (or this week to last

week, or this month to the same month last

year).

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 We use statistically valid methods to

determine when performance has changed,

so we don’t react to differences that are

part of normal variation.

Performance shortfalls and missed targets

are easily blamed on outside forces like the

economy, lack of budget, not enough staff.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Performance shortfalls are analysed and

the root causes are found and fixed before

targets are missed.

Measures are used as a tool to assess

people’s performance.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Measures are used to assess business and

process performance, as a tool for people

to make decisions and take action.

Most performance targets are missed. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Most performance targets are achieved.

We rush to implement ideas and initiatives

without testing first (our motto is “Don’t just

stand there, do something!”)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 We test strategies and improvement

initiatives before full implementation (using

our measures), so we don’t waste time or

resources on solutions that don’t work.


If you still want to improve your

performance measurement

even further (it’s already pretty

good!), contact Stacey to

explore how.



improve how you use

measures to improve

performance.

PuMP® Blueprint Key Step 5:Use performance measures to improve performance.

• PuMP® Using Measures

technique will help you:– design a decision-making or performance review

process that ensures discussion is focused on

getting the most insight from performance

measures in order to improve performance and

achieve targets

– execute your strategy through regular

monitoring, evaluating and testing and tuning of

improvement initiatives

• How it works:– provides a guideline on how to recognise the

true signals in performance measures and stop

reacting to point-to-point variations (which

creates more problems)

– centres discussion on a relentless solution

focus, to avoid wasting time with blame and

acting within your circle of influence to achieve

the results implied by your goals and objectives


Explore approaches for

adopting PuMP®

Approaches to adopt PuMP® for performance

measurement:

Approach Options

Build in-house performance

measurement skill

In-house PuMP® Performance Measure Blueprint Workshop (for 10 or more

people throughout your organisation)

Corporate table at upcoming public PuMP® Performance Measure Blueprint

Workshop (ideal for up to 6 people from your organisation)

PuMP® Performance Measure Blueprint Self-Paced Audio Program (a copy

for each person to learn at their own pace)

Develop an in-house corporate

performance measurement team

PuMP® Performance Measurement Practitioner Certification Program (pre-

requisite is the Performance Measure Blueprint Workshop or Audio Program)

Play with some of the PuMP®

techniques in an ad hoc way (get a

feel for it)

PuMP® How-to Kits (there’s one for each Blueprint Key Step)

Have an expert lead you through the

first few times

PuMP® Implementer Program (an external PuMP® Consultant facilitates the

Performance Measure Blueprint for one or more teams in your organisation)


What now?

See all 7 steps in the PuMP®

Performance Measure Blueprint

What’s our first next step?


Contact Stacey?

Suggestions?

16

All the steps of the PuMP® Performance Measure

Blueprint

1.

plan approach

& warm up the

team

2.

make the

strategy

measurable

3.

design the

measures

4.

consult wider

to build

buy-in

5.

define the

measures &

source data

6.

report the

measures

usefully &

useably

7.

use measures

to improve

performance

8.

review the

measures &

integrate

plan &

review

measure

selection

bring

measures to

life

BACK

About Stacey Barr

Stacey Barr is a teacher and mentor for corporate planners, business analysts, corporate performance managers, and others who guide the development of meaningful, results-oriented performance measures that focus their organisation on executing strategy and achieving its purpose.

Since 1999, Stacey has been a freelance specialist in business performance measurement and her passion is to give this capability to others, so that performance measurement becomes as “business as usual” as financial management.

She’s the creator of PuMP® - a unique approach that gives people the detailed practical steps to develop performance measures in a way that creates incredible buy-in.

With her email newsletters, consulting programs, public workshops and how-to products, Stacey has helped hundreds of organisations develop more meaningful performance measures than they’ve ever had.

Stacey’s clients know her for her passion and practicality. They include many federal and state government agencies, local government authorities, corporations, non-profit organisations and small to medium enterprises throughout the world.

Learn more about Stacey and PuMP® at www.staceybarr.com or contact Stacey at [email protected] or +61 408 883 458.


http://www.staceybarr.com/

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How can your performance measurement become easier, more ... · •This exercise is a diagnostic review of your performance measurement process. •It will help you talk about how

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